A police baton with crosshandle having a baton main body and a crosshandle secured in perpendicular to the baton main body at a position localized longitudinally from the center to one end of the baton main body has been known. A user of the baton usually grips the crosshandle with his little finger positioned on the side near the baton main body and manipulates the baton while controlling the gripping force. The user performs offense and defense striking an opponent, for example, by rotating the baton around the axis of the crosshandle while thrusting the baton main body, suddenly stopping the rotation or projecting the baton main body along its axial direction. If the user get accustomed to such maneuvers, the police baton with crosshandle can be used in various ways such as quick motion, high speed rotation, sudden start or stop, or jabbing from out of the opponent's view which is difficult to be forecast and, accordingly, it is considered more effective than a simple straight baton.
As the existent police baton with crosshandle of this type, it has been proposed a police baton, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,409 in which a portion of the crosshandle, in particular, only the lower portion (base portion relative to the baton main body) is made partially rotatable relative to the baton main body, with an aim of improving the maneuverability.
Generally, it is important for club-like weapon used for hitting with an opponent near at hand, to protect the hand that holds the weapon and protection means are disposed, for example, a guard (TSUBA) for a sword and a hand guard for a saber or the like.
In a case of a relatively short club member such as a police baton, a possibility of injuring the holding hand is further increased. In particular, in a case of the police baton with a crosshandle, since the crosshandle is disposed in perpendicular to the baton main body, different from the haft of the sword or the saber, the knuckle of the hand gripping the crosshandle is fairly exposed directly to the opponent thus tending to be left unguarded. This has a significant meaning worthy of notice.
That is, it is usually considered utterly difficult to make a defensive motion during offensive motion and, accordingly, it is difficult to dodge the opponent's counterattack upon offense. In particular, in a case of striking the opponent by the police baton with crosshandle, the baton main body can be rotated at an extremely high velocity to provide a powerful offensive effect. However, since the hand that grips the crosshandle is situated at the center of the rotation, its motion is relatively slow. In addition, the hand approaches the opponent while being considerably exposed.
This means for the opponent that an easy weakness to attack comes closer.
Further, as the technique of using the police baton with a crosshandle, it may sometimes be manipulated, for example, in such a way as striking the opponent at the end of the baton main body, or sweeping off the weapon swung down by the opponent by rotating the baton main body at a high speed while swinging the hand that grips the crosshandle toward the opponent. In such offense/defense technique, there is a risk that the hand gripping the crosshandle may abut against a target to suffer injuries due to errors in view of a brief timing or aim.
As described above, protection for the hand is particularly important in the police baton with a crosshandle, which is relatively short in length, as a weapon and often brings the knuckle of the hand, being exposed as it is, closer to the opponent in the offense/defense motions. However, no police baton with a crosshandle having a hand guard has yet been proposed.
A primary reason why the police baton is not provided with the hand guard is as follows. Since the police baton with the crosshandle of this type is often used under rotation, different from the saber or the like, no particular consideration has been taken on specifying the directionality of the hand guard (perhaps because of a fixed idea that the hand guard should be attached immovably to the gripping portion). Then, it has been considered that presence of the hand guard hinders the rotational motion of the police baton with the crosshandle making it more workable as the police baton with the crosshandle. In addition, it has also been considered that the hand guard hinders a so-called "quick draw" motion in a state where the police baton is suspended by a holster from the user's waist.
For the saber, if the hand guard is made rotatable relative to the haft, the positional direction changes between the hand guard and the blade making it difficult for gripping the haft, as well as the hand guard displaces along with the swinging motion of the saber or by the opponent's striking, failing to protect the hand. Therefore, the hand guard should be secured to the haft.